Researchers alter rodents' recollections by exciting just a few neurons

By Jessica Shugart, 12:37 PM July 25, 2013

Just a tiny fraction of the brain’s neurons firing at the wrong time may be able to make a figment of the imagination seem real. Scientists have come to that conclusion after implanting false memories into the brains of mice.

“It’s fairly astounding,” says neurobiologist Mark Mayford of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, Calif, who was not involved in the research. “Stimulating a small amount of cells can put a thought into an animal’s head.”